Breathe Life In
by keepupbabe
Summary: Coda to 321. Chin's pretty banged up after getting shot, so Danny takes him home and fixes him up in true Williams style. Chinese food is eaten, crappy reality tv is watched, and Danny reveals a few things that Chin wasn't expecting. (originally posted 5/17/13)


Chin's not surprised when Danny insists he stay at the hospital once they've got Wo Fat secured on his own floor, covered in layers of burn gauze and a surly expression. Steve's got an equally nasty look on his face, personally overseeing his strict security measures for the man.

"I'm fine, Danny, seriously. I'm not staying here – I had my vest on." Chin shoves himself into the Camaro's passenger seat, but he knows Danny sees the wince he has every time he inhales too deeply, no matter how hard he tries to hide it.

"Uh, no, pal. You got shot in the chest, three times, if you don't remember. Even if you think so, you're most certainly not fine. Even if nothing went through, I can tell you've got some nasty bruises under your shirt from the way you've been cringing every time you breathe. And if you're going to pull a McGarrett and not stay here to get checked out," Danny waves a hand at the hospital behind him, "then I'm going home with you to make sure you don't die in your sleep."

Chin glares at Danny from where he's sunk down in his seat, trying to relieve the pressure in his chest. Danny just glares back, the full Jersey snarl thrown off by a wisp of hair poking out over his forehead. It's the thing that actually breaks Chin's resolve.

"Fine, fine. I'm not going to argue with you and I'm sure Kono would agree anyways. Can we go now? I'm starving." Chin points himself straight forward, not daring to look at Danny anymore, though he can practically hear the man's grin all the way on his side of the car.

Whatever this thing with Danny is, Chin's not sure – it's been good food shared over better conversation, long marathons of cooking shows and the X-Files, and the best sex Chin can remember having in years.

He's not going to question it yet, since he's not felt this close to someone in a long time and it's a feeling he's sorely missed.

Danny steers the Camaro in the direction of Chin's house, stopping at the local hole-in-the-wall Chinese buffet a few blocks away. They both load up take away plates with noodles, assorted vegetables and sesame chicken for Danny. Chin can feel his mouth watering even as Danny's paying for the food. They get to his house about ten minutes later, Danny juggling the plastic bag of containers even as he pushes Chin forward through the door with a soft fist to the small of his back.

Chin's in the kitchen now, bending over to tug his boots off when a sharp twinge of pain runs through his chest, settling deep in his lungs, causing a groan to puff past his lips. Unfortunately Danny has chosen that moment to come through the door with the overnight bag he keeps in the Camaro's trunk slung over his shoulder, their food in his other hand.

"Ah ah, what did I just hear? C'mon wonder bread, we're checking those bruises out right now," Danny tuts as he sets down both the food and the bag on the kitchen's center island before extending a hand out to Chin, who reluctantly takes it when he straightens up.

Chin can't help but feel better at Danny's warm hand ensconced in his own, tugging him into his bedroom. His bed is still unmade from their hasty rush to the office, in case Savannah Walker decided to show up early. (Danny bitching in Chin's ear the whole way there.)

Danny's hand stays in his until they're in the ensuite bathroom, Chin stopping to lean his hip against the counter to watch as Danny fusses. He has a soft smile on his face.

"No, c'mere, sit on the toilet." Danny motions to Chin, flipping the lid down before pointing him towards the seat. Chin does as he's told, still watching Danny and trying to ignore the pings of pain shooting through his chest now.

Chin's not sure how he feels about Danny touching him all over without a proper shower first – he's tired, he feels nasty from the adrenaline rush earlier, the spots under his arm stiff with dried sweat and deodorant.

But Danny seems to understand this, as he's busy wetting a wash rag under the sink faucet.

"Can you take your shirt off, or do you need help?" Danny asks quietly, now leaning his own hip against the counter and staring down at Chin.

Chin thinks that the whole reason he was forcibly sat down, was so that Danny had someone to look down to for once. He stifles that thought with a smile as he shakes his head, gripping the bottom edge of his shirt and pulling it up slowly. A few more bolts of pain erupt across his chest as the fabric brushes over the spots where the bullets hit, but Chin just tries to pull the shirt off quickly after that.

Danny's low whistle next to him makes him realize that he's actually not as fine as he insisted earlier. He glances down, shocked by the splotches of dark purple spread across the right half of his sternum, smudged into the depths of his ribs like spilt paint, even down lower, over his bellybutton. Danny kneels next to him on the rug in front of the toilet, hands reaching up to Chin's chest. He doesn't touch quite yet, glancing at Chin as if for permission, and Chin nods.

"Jesus, babe. That asshat did a number on you, didn't he?" Danny breathes as he smoothes his fingers gently along the edge of the upper most bruise, the purple licked across Chin's collarbone. He reaches over to the sink, plucking up the damp rag once more. "This alright?"

Chin nods again, feeling like he's having a slight out of body experience as Danny softly runs the rag across the bruises. He hisses when Danny accidentally presses in a little too hard with his thumb.

Danny murmurs his apology as he moves over to the other side of Chin's body where there aren't any bruises marring the tan skin. This doesn't feel any different than the times Danny has done this before, Chin spread across his bed, chest heaving for a completely different reason and feeling like he could sleep for three years. It just hurts now.

"Arms up, please." Chin does has he's told, lifting the left one first for Danny to swipe at, before slowly lifting the right, wincing as he does. Danny just takes it in stride, fingers looping around Chin's right wrist to hold the weight as he continues his ministrations.

Once Danny's sure Chin is at least clean of all the sweat on the upper part of his body, he pushes him back to lean against the back of the toilet, telling him to stay there for a second as he leaves the room.

He comes back in a few minutes later, holding a pair of boxers in one hand as well as his own overnight bag. He hands the boxers to Chin, who looks at him questioningly.

"Go ahead and put those on, so we can get comfortable. Unless you want to stay in those gross jeans for a little while longer?"

Chin shakes his head, leaning back to undo his pants and wiggle them down his hips without standing up, moving slower than he normally would to not aggravate the bruises further. He has to stand up to push down his current underwear though, using Danny's discarded rag to run over the lower half of his body, which feels just as sticky as the rest of him. He pulls his new boxers up right after, and they feel looser than the ones he's used to wearing – Danny must have pulled them out of the back of his underwear drawer, where he keeps his older pairs.

As he's doing this, Danny's changing beside him, pulling off his button up and slacks, along with his own underwear. He stands naked in front of Chin for a second, catching his eye and wiggling his brows. Chin smiles softly, shaking his head. As much as Chin usually can't resist getting his hands full of Danny's body, he's in too much pain right now and the thought of over exerting himself with all these bruises makes a few more twinges pass over his chest.

"Honestly, I'm not going to put the moves on you right now. I don't like taking advantage of broken men, even if they're still just as good looking," Danny laughs as he speaks, before rewetting the rag he'd used on Chin, running it all over his own body. He deposits it in the small clothes hamper next to the tub, pulling on his pair of gym shorts that reach down to about his knees, only just hiding the white scar across the right one from his ACL surgery. He doesn't bother with a shirt – it's too hot in Hawaii right now, even if Chin's AC works well.

"I'm not broken. I told you I'm fine," Chin huffs, but there's no heat behind it as he puts both his and Danny's work clothes in the hamper.

"Yeah, sure. C'mon, you. I've got some Vicks I'm gonna rub all over you later, but it's almost too much right when you're eating, so there's some ibuprofen in the kitchen with your name on it." Danny takes Chin's hand again as he says this, pulling him back through the bedroom and into the kitchen where their food has been laid out. Chin can hear the TV on in the background – Mythbusters.

Danny putters around in the refrigerator, pulling out a carton of orange juice from the bottom shelf. He also pulls down two glasses out of the cupboard above the sink. He carries them into the living room and Chin hears them clink onto the coffee table.

Then Danny's behind him, fingers warm on the small of his back.

"You coming, slow poke?"

Chin nods, picking up his own plate, watching Danny do the same as they walk back into the living room. Danny waits for Chin to get settled on his side of the couch – the right side, one long leg drawn up under him, before sitting next to him, putting his feet up on the wooden surface of the coffee table.

They settle in, tucking into their food, Danny's thigh warm along the length of Chin's own, only speaking when the guys on the show do something ridiculous that Danny thinks is crazy.

"They'd never do that in Jersey," Danny scoffs, and Chin can't help but snort.

"That's the whole point, hoa," Chin murmurs. He sips at his orange juice – it doesn't really go well with Chinese food, but Danny says that the Vitamin C is good for bruises, so he doesn't complain, just takes sparing drinks of it. "They're going to do crazy ridiculous things so you don't have to."

They sit through two more episodes before Danny flips the channel over to the food network, catching a rerun of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives that Chin insists they've never actually seen before. They sit there in silence for a few minutes, before Danny turns to look at him. Sometime since he'd put their empty plates and glasses onto the coffee table, he's snuck calloused fingers onto the inside of Chin's thigh, rubbing softly there. Chin glances up at him.

"Do you think Guy ever just goes out back to whatever restaurant they're at and just pukes it up everywhere?" Danny asks, face completely serious.

Chin wrinkles his nose at that mental image, his eyebrow slightly raised. "Have you ever done that?"

Danny contemplates his answer before nodding gravely. "Yeah, when I was twenty two. My sister challenged me to a pizza eating contest and I got kind of drunk at the same time. She beat me and I vomited all over the restaurant's dumpster. It was pretty fucking disgusting..." Danny looks like he's getting ready to go on, but Chin waves his hand at him to stop, giving him a look like he couldn't believe that Danny had just told him that.

"I don't know how I can still want to kiss you, knowing you've done that."

Danny grins, wide and cheeky, leaning forward to press a kiss to side of Chin's jaw, feeling a slight scratch of stubble under his lips. "Your baby fuzz is coming in," he murmurs leaning farther in to rub his own cheek against Chin's. Chin can't help but smile, letting him do it.

They sit like that for a few more minutes, Danny pressed against Chin with his head on his shoulder, watching as Guy Fieri traipses through Florida.

Danny picks his head back up to look at Chin once more. "Hey, you remember our first date?"

Chin nods. It had only been about seven months ago and he remembers how nervous he'd been, at least until Danny had shown up and said they should take a ride on his motorcycle. That had broken the ice pretty quickly, and seeing Danny windswept later on had been worth it.

"Yeah, I do. You picked the place – the Highway Inn, on Leoku Street? It was really nice."

Danny beams, as if remembering how that night had gone – the motorcycle ride, the good food and company, ending later with him kissing Chin hotly on his front porch before they went their separate ways – never of them put out on the first date, after all. The second one though…

"Well, the episode where he went to the Highway Inn is the one I watched a few months before I moved out to Hawaii. It looked really special, you know? So I told myself that if I found a special someone in Hawaii, that's where were going to go. Steve tried to get me to go a few times, but I had to keep holding out." Danny shrugged, his fingers tightened slightly on Chin's thigh, before smoothing out and resuming their soft stroking.

Chin can feel his face lighting up at the implications of what Danny's just told him – they've gone to the Highway Inn a few times since that first date, and it's been good every single time. The people there even knew their names, though they've known Chin for several years now.

But Chin wasn't going to tell Danny that. He reaches down and laces his fingers with Danny's, rubbing his thumb over one bright pink, calloused knuckle.  
"You're a sap, you know that? But I love you anyways, sappiness and all."

Danny rolls his eyes, turning to the screen briefly before turning back to Chin, glancing down at the bruises across his chest. Obviously they've not gotten better in the few hours they've been home – if anything, they look worse, and Danny feels a small prick behind his eyes.

"I was really afraid earlier today, you know? I mean, I know you've got your vest on and that saved you, but...what if the bullet had just gone a few inches higher, huh? There were three of them, Chin."

Chin's not sure what to say. He's still getting used to this, having someone worry over him who's not Kono, or his mother and brother, someone's who wormed his way into his life so completely and filled up all his empty compartments. When he opens his mouth again, the words just tumble out.

"I know, I can tell you where all three of them landed, Danny. And I don't know what to tell you, things happen. We all try to be as safe as possible, but we can't stop everything. I hope it doesn't happen again, because yeah, it hurts like hell. And I don't know what I'd do if it happened to you, so I'm not going to think about it. And you should do the same, though I know you won't. It's over now, and I'm still here, not bleeding, just bruised."

Chin stops, lifting a hand to smooth across Danny's own stubbly cheek, rubbing a thumb across his bottom lip.

"You got my back, right?"

Danny's face breaks out into a smile at this, his eyes looking watery, though Chin knows he'd never cop to that.

"Always, babe."

Chin leans forward now, pressing his lips to Danny's own and soon enough, their kiss deepens. Just as Danny's tongue is sweeping over Chin's teeth, Danny's hand comes up to rest against Chin's side – too close to the bruises. Chin hisses, pulling back and wincing harshly.

"Ah, shit! Damn it, sorry, Chin." Danny pulls his hand away quickly as Chin leans back against the couch, his eyes closed as a fresh wave of pain crashes across his chest, settling into the pit of stomach. His breath is coming is quick pants, the fingers of his right hand curled into the couch cushion.

"No, no, it's fine. Just...really tender, I guess. Everywhere."

"I think it's time for bed, and some of that Vicks. C'mon, you. Go on in there and get comfortable, I'll clean up everything in here."

Chin nods, not arguing as he gingerly levers himself up off the couch, heading to the bathroom to use the toilet and quickly brush his teeth. Afterwards, as he's settling down on the bed, comforter rolled down to the end, he can hear Danny clanking around in the kitchen, flicking off the lights and the tv, locking up the front door. A minute later, Danny's through the bedroom door, where Chin sleepily admires the curve of his hips. He catches glimpses of Danny's back as Danny leans against the counter, brushing his teeth.

He watches too as Danny digs something out of the medicine cabinet, a small blue pot held securely in his hand as he flips the bathroom light off before coming to settle on the bed next to Chin. Danny grins down at him, though he frowns lightly as his eyes rove over Chin's chest.

"I mean, I know they're really bad anyways, but these look even worse in this light. How much pressure do you think you can take?"

Chin tilts his head back, lips curling up as he contemplates this. "Not much, I don't think. You barely touched my side earlier and it hurt all over."

Danny hums as he uncaps the pot, dipping two blunt fingers inside and scooping out a dollop of the thick paste, which he transfers over to Chin's chest, letting it rest there. The smell hits Chin instantly, the sharp scent of menthol opening up his nose in an instant. He unconsciously sucks in a huge breath, and the pain is a bright and clean counterpoint to the medicine that has him gasping.

"Whoa, whoa! Don't do that, you're just going to make it worse. Small breaths, Chin Ho, small breaths."

Chin nods, trying to settle down as Danny begins to smooth the off white solution over the worst of the bruises to the right side of his sternum, whispering quiet nothings as he does to calm Chin down. It works, and Chin begins to melt into the mattress under him, hoping that if he goes limp the pain will start to go away. It doesn't work entirely, but by the time Danny's done slathering his whole chest with the medicine, he's starting to feel a bit better.

Danny sits back now, still sitting cross legged next to him as his contemplates his handy work, rubbing the thumb still covered in Vicks back and forth over his first two fingers.

"You know when I was fifteen, I had a really bad cold, so I was using this stuff to put across my chest, to help me breathe? Well I woke up from I don't know, a really intense wet dream or something, sick out of my mind, but I was so hard I thought I was going to drill a hole through my sheets. In my haze, I grabbed this shit off the table and covered my dick in it, just started going at it." Danny shudders, as if remembering exactly what had happened next.

"It took me like half a second to realize something was wrong and I was up out of bed like a shot, into the bathroom. I woke Ma up too, and she demanded to know what was going on. I don't think you know embarrassing until your mom finds out you've been jerking it with Vicks. My sister, Marie, found out too, she's not let me live it down since then."

Chin can't help it, the laughter starts deep in his chest and comes out in his slow deep rumble, his eyes closing as his belly jerks with his mirth.

"You're such a_ lolo_, Danny."

Danny leans over him, grinning at Chin's laughter and smoothing a hand over Chin's quaking shoulder.

"Hey, stop laughing so much, you're going to hurt yourself again."

Sure enough, Chin's laughter dies down and he winces as he shifts to a more comfortable position, but the smile is still painted across his face as he looks up at Danny.

"Go wash your hands, Daniel. I want to go to sleep."

"Oooh, you're even prettier when you're bossy," Danny snarks as he clambers out of the bed to wash his hands.

He turns the bedside lamp off before settling in next to Chin – it's too warm for the thick comforter, but he pulls the thin under sheet up to Chin's belly button. He doesn't cross his arm over Chin's chest like he normally would, but crosses a leg over one of Chin's instead, settling on his stomach. Their arms line up next to each other, Danny scooping down and curling his pinky around Chin's index finger.

It's not the most comfortable position, but Danny refuses to not have at least one part of his body touching Chin's at all times. As he pushes his head next to Chin's on the pillow, he whispers, "I'm sticking a phone book in your vest next time, babe."

Chin just chuckles sleepily. "I'd like to see you try. Go to sleep."

Danny nods, pushing forward to press his lips to Chin's cheek before finally settling down. They're both asleep in minutes, soft smiles spread across their faces.


End file.
